Shenmue's social-gaming installment starts the year by cancelling support

Ill-fated cult series gets another cancellation

Shenmue, Sega's long-dormant open-world adventure, just can't catch a damn break. Fans spent 2011 waiting for a smartphone port of social spinoff Shenmue Gai (aka Shenmue World or Shenmue Town). But Ysnet, the game's developer, quietly announced over the Christmas break that instead of expanding Shenmue Gai onto new platforms, it'll be canceling support for the title.

Above: At least the series' last canonical moment was a pretty one

The free-play title wasn't the canonical continuation fans have been waiting for since Shenmue II's release in 2001, but instead focused on telling new stories within the first game's home area of Yokosuka. However, the Suzuki-produced title had been the first glimpse of a new Shenmue anything for some time, and the creator's initial promise was that the game might one day be able to host the series' long-absent concluding chapters. The fate of those chapters is once more uncertain, but if nothing else Shenmue fans will always have their fan fiction.